A Google Alert is a free notification sent to a user when Google identifies content online that matches a specific search term, such as a name, a company or a specific phrase. According to Google.com:

"... people use Google Alerts to: find out what is being said about their company or product, monitor a developing news story, keep up to date on a competitor or industry, get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team, find out what's being said about themselves."

A Google Alert is much like a personalized, no-limits news service that delivers only the news users want. For instance, an enthusiastic golfer would probably want to know sooner rather than later about a new golf product or course regulation. And if a professional football player suffered an injury, fans (and rival fans) would probably want to know about the injury and prognosis of the team physician before, say, fantasy football draft. In both scenarios, relevant information and news can be supplied through the use of Google Alerts.

As for the notion of a Google Alert being little more than a tool of the vain, which is really harder to admit: that you receive Google Alerts for your name or company, or that someone mentioned your name or company online and you were the last to know? Negative or positive, time is of the essence when you or your company are mentioned online—whether for correcting an inaccuracy or even if just to send a timely word of thanks.

•In the field marked "search query," enter the word or phrase for which you wish to receive a Google Alert. Be sure to use quotes around phrases to receive alerts on exact search terms, such as your name, your company name or the name of your favorite sports player.

•Select the type of results desired. Selecting "everything" will return all results, regardless of type, whereas users may wish to limit their results to "news," "blogs," "video," "discussions," or "books." Generally, selecting "everything" is preferable, at least initially. This can be changed later.

•Next, select how often alert results should be sent to you. Select "as-it-happens" for anything time-sensitive, and "once a week" or "once a day" for items less so.

•In the "how many" drop-down, select "all results" or "only the best results." This can be the difference between being informed on a topic and being overloaded on a topic, but it can also result in duplicate or aggregated content. If the results are too heavy or too limited, this can be edited later.

•Lastly, select delivery method (do you want the alert sent right to your email inbox? Or would you rather get alerts live in an RSS feed that you can view when you choose?) and click "create alert."

Once the Google Alert is saved, updates will be automatically delivered. Users can set many alerts for a variety of topics and phrases, all of which and can be updated by visiting google.com/alerts and selecting "manage your alerts."

Amy Guth is social media manager for the Chicago Tribune Media Group and co-host of 30 Second Social, the Tribune's social media web series. Follow her on Twitter: @amyguth

A mouse and Google mousepad are shown at Google's New York office in this Friday, Oct. 27, 2006 file photo. If you're wondering whether you should be setting up Google Alerts on your own name or your company, the answer is "why aren't you already doing that?"

On Thursday, Google is streamlining individual privacy policies governing its sites into a single policy. This has created much buzz about what Google may or may not be doing with your information going forward. Let's sort this out.